Contents

Plot
summary

Following his discovery of the body of his wife in a bathtub
after her suicide, Dr. David
Callaway (Robert
De Niro), a psychologist working in New York City, decides to move with his
daughter Emily (Dakota Fanning) to upstate New
York. There, Emily befriends a mysterious imaginary friend who
wishes to be named "Charlie". Her friendship with Charlie begins to
disturb David when he discovers their cat dead in the bathtub. Charlie is apparently
responsible for this horrific act, according to Emily. David also
has recurring nightmares at a specific time of the night where
(2:06) , in the dream, he keeps re-living the New Year's Eve that
he discovers his wife cheating on him. When a family friend,
Katherine (Famke
Janssen) comes to visit David and Emily, Emily reveals that she
and Charlie are getting closer and have a mutual desire to upset
her father. Soon they meet a man and a woman that are their
neighbors. They had a daughter that died from cancer, and in a
photo, it is revealed that the daughter looks exactly like Emily.
The husband soon starts coming to visit Emily and talks to her very
often.

When David meets local woman Elizabeth (Elisabeth Shue)
to whom he has become attracted, Charlie hides in a closet and then
bursts out, pushing Elizabeth out a second-story window, causing
her death. After the police discover her car crashed near David's
house, David asks Emily what happened. Emily claims Charlie had
caused her death and then tells David where her body is. A
terrified David discovers Elizabeth's body in a bathtub full of
blood. David asks Emily where Charlie is, and Emily tells him that
Charlie "just left the house".

David, armed with a knife, goes outside, where he meets his
concerned neighbor that has become friends with Emily. The neighbor
claims he heard noises and saw David walk out of the woods with a
shovel moments before. David assumes that his neighbor is Charlie
and begins to act aggressively. Thinking that David has killed his
own daughter and buried her in the woods, the neighbor asks to see
Emily, but David refuses and cuts the neighbor with his knife. The
neighbor then calls the police. As he is in his house, a door
opens. David, thinking it was their neighbor, charges into the room
beyond. Nobody is there, just boxes and his psychologist
equipment.

After this, David discovers that he has split personality. David
realizes that Charlie is not imaginary at all, but that in fact
Charlie is David himself. David also discovers that under his
Charlie personality, he killed his wife and then made it appear to
be a suicide, after discovering his wife's affair. David's entire personality then becomes
fully consumed by the increasingly violent Charlie, leading him to
murder the local sheriff,
who came to investigate the previous altercation. Emily calls
Katherine for help and tells her that her dad can't help her any
longer.

Katherine arrives and is pushed in the basement by Charlie.
David (Charlie), determined to play a hideous game of hide and
seek, starts counting, Emily dashes and hides. Charlie starts
looking and finally finds her in the bathroom where she is hiding
behind the door. Emily runs to her room and locks the door. She has
nowhere to go except for the window Elizabeth was thrown from, but
it is too high. She attempts to open a window that only Charlie
could open, and is successful. She then escapes and runs to the
cave where she met Charlie. Katherine escapes from the basement and
shoots David right before he catches her.

The movie ends with Emily preparing for school while living a
new life with Katherine. Emily draws a picture of herself and
Katherine, suggesting that everything is fine. But when the camera
cuts back to Emily's drawing, Emily has two heads suggesting that
she herself also suffers from split personality.

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Endings

This film has a total of five different endings. The US
theatrical release had the following ending:

Preparing for school while living a new life with Katherine,
Emily draws a picture of herself and Katherine, suggesting that
everything is fine. But when the camera cuts back to Emily's
drawing, Emily has two heads.

Another four were included on the DVD released in the USA:

Ending #1: The same as the ending in the US theatre release,
except that the drawing Emily makes of herself has only one head,
suggesting that she is fine and does not suffer from the same
disease that resulted in the death of both her parents.

Ending #2 (this is the ending in the International theatrical
version): Emily is shown seemingly in a new apartment bedroom, and
Katherine's actions mirror that of her mother's at the beginning of
the film. She reassures her love to Emily and begins to leave the
room. Emily asks Katherine to leave the door open, but Katherine
insists she cannot. As the door shuts, a protected window is
visible on the door. The next cut is of Katherine locking the door
from the outside, revealing this assumed apartment bedroom is
actually a hospital room in a children's psychiatric ward.

Ending #3: Same as above in the psychiatric ward. After
Katherine shuts the door, Emily gets out of bed and does a Hide and
Seek countdown. She nears the closet, opens, and smiles at her own
reflection in the mirror.

Ending #4: An ending similar to that in the psychiatric ward,
but in this ending Emily is not in a ward but her new home, again
playing Hide and Seek with her own reflection.

According to the commentary, the directors, screenwriters, and
producers chose the ending they did for the default DVD and
domestic release because it gave the audience a relief at the end
of the film. They felt the hospital room endings were too dark and
suggested that Emily is being punished for things she did not do.
After the Emily character is basically thrown into terror for the
last 45 minutes of the film, they felt it was time to give her an
emotional break, and the happy ending was chosen, though it is not
necessarily 'happy' as she still draws a double head, meaning that
she suffers from split personality.

Box
office

See also

Trivia

David has several noticeable similarities to Norman Bates of the
Psycho series of films. Both
characters start out as protagonists of their respective films,
both wind up battling off-camera antagonists, both eventually find
out that they themselves are the antagonists, and both eventually
succumb to their psychotic counterparts.

The final twist is extremely similar to the one at the end of
the film Secret
Window, where the protagonist is battling against a
threatening and murdering entity only to discover at the end that
he was the murderer the whole time, at that point he gives in to
his second personality and becomes the antagonist for the final
scenes.

At the dinner scene where Emily is presented books, the top
book is Charlotte's Web. Dakota Fanning
would play Fern Arable, the main human character, in the
live-action adaptation of the story in 2006.

The phrase "Come out come out whatever you are" resembles the
phrase "Come out come out wherever you" De Niro used in the remake
of Cape Fear

Contents

Plot summary

This article's plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (January 2010)

Following his discovery of the body of his wife in a bathtub after her suicide, Dr. David Callaway (Robert De Niro), a psychologist working in New York City, decides to move with his daughter Emily (Dakota Fanning) to upstate New York. There, Emily bestfriends a mysterious imaginary friend who wishes to be named "Charlie". Her friendship with Charlie begins to disturb David when he discovers their cat dead in the bathtub. Charlie is apparently responsible for this horrific act, according to Emily. David also has recurring nightmares at a specific time of the night where (2:06) , in the dream, he keeps re-living the New Year's Eve that he discovers his wife cheating on him. When a family friend, Katherine (Famke Janssen) comes to visit David and Emily, Emily reveals that she and Charlie are getting closer and have a mutual desire to upset her father. Soon they meet a man and a woman that are their neighbors. They had a daughter that died from cancer, and in a photo, it is revealed that the daughter looks exactly like Emily. The husband soon starts coming to visit Emily and talks to her very often.

When David meets local woman Elizabeth (Elisabeth Shue) to whom he has become attracted, Charlie hides in a closet and then bursts out, pushing Elizabeth out a second-story window, causing her death. After the police discover her car crashed near David's house, David asks Emily what happened. Emily claims Charlie had caused her death and then tells David where her body is. A terrified David discovers Elizabeth's body in a bathtub full of blood. David asks Emily where Charlie is, and Emily tells him that Charlie "just left the house".

David, armed with a knife, goes outside, where he meets his concerned neighbor that has become friends with Emily. The neighbor claims he heard noises and saw David walk out of the woods with a shovel moments before. David assumes that his neighbor is Charlie and begins to act aggressively. Thinking that David has killed his own daughter and buried her in the woods, the neighbor asks to see Emily, but David refuses and cuts the neighbor with his knife. The neighbor then calls the police. As he is in his house, a door opens. David, thinking it was their neighbor, charges into the room beyond. Nobody is there, just boxes and his psychologist equipment.

After this, David discovers that he has split personality. David realizes that Charlie is not imaginary at all, but that in fact Charlie is David himself. David also discovers that under his Charlie personality, he killed his wife and then made it appear to be a suicide, after discovering his wife's affair. David's entire personality then becomes fully consumed by the increasingly violent Charlie, leading him to murder the local sheriff, who came to investigate the previous altercation. Emily calls Katherine for help and tells her that her dad can't help her any longer.

Katherine arrives and is pushed in the basement by Charlie. David (Charlie), determined to play a hideous game of hide and seek, starts counting, Emily dashes and hides. Charlie starts looking and goes into the bathroom were Emily is hiding, when Charlie goes in she makes a run for it to her room and locks the door. Finding an only exit she decides to go out from the window and running into the cave where she had met Charlie. Meanwhile Katherine takes the gun from the sheriff and manages to get out of the closet to help Emily. In the cave Charlie is looking for Emily, Katherine bursted in. Charlie tricks Katherine into acting like he has no clue of what's happening to him and hits her. When he is about to kill her Emily comes out and tells him to let her go then he goes to Emily switching his flash light on and off, when he is finally right in front of her Katherine comes between them and shoots Charlie.

The movie ends with Emily preparing for school while living a new life with Katherine. Emily draws a picture of herself and Katherine, suggesting that everything is fine. But when the camera cuts back to Emily's drawing, Emily has two heads suggesting that she herself also suffers from split personality.

Endings

This film has a total of five different endings. The US theatrical release had the following ending:

Preparing for school while living a new life with Katherine, Emily draws a picture of herself and Katherine, suggesting that everything is fine. But when the camera cuts back to Emily's drawing, Emily has two heads.

Another four were included on the DVD released in the USA:

Ending #1: The same as the ending in the US theatre release, except that the drawing Emily makes of herself has only one head, suggesting that she is fine and does not suffer from the same disease that resulted in the death of both her parents.

Ending #2 (this is the ending in the International theatrical version): Emily is shown seemingly in a new apartment bedroom, and Katherine's actions mirror that of her mother's at the beginning of the film. She reassures her love to Emily and begins to leave the room. Emily asks Katherine to leave the door open, but Katherine insists she cannot. As the door shuts, a protected window is visible on the door. The next cut is of Katherine locking the door from the outside, revealing this assumed apartment bedroom is actually a hospital room in a children's psychiatric ward.

Ending #3: Same as above in the psychiatric ward. After Katherine shuts the door, Emily gets out of bed and does a Hide and Seek countdown. She nears the closet, opens, and smiles at her own reflection in the mirror.

Ending #4: An ending similar to that in the psychiatric ward, but in this ending Emily is not in a ward but her new home, again playing Hide and Seek with her own reflection.

According to the commentary, the directors, screenwriters, and producers chose the ending they did for the default DVD and domestic release because it gave the audience a relief at the end of the film. They felt the hospital room endings were too dark and suggested that Emily is being punished for things she did not do. After the Emily character is basically thrown into terror for the last 45 minutes of the film, they felt it was time to give her an emotional break, and the happy ending was chosen, though it is not necessarily 'happy' as she still draws a double head, meaning that she suffers from split personality.

Tagline

The movie has a spin-off tagline, "Come Out Come Out, Whatever You Are", a spin-off from the "Come Out Come Out, Wherever You Are" which used in the film.